


Your Tender Heart

by slashmyheartandhopetoporn



Category: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-23
Updated: 2016-04-23
Packaged: 2018-06-04 00:53:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6634459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slashmyheartandhopetoporn/pseuds/slashmyheartandhopetoporn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“So what happened when you found out JB was not, in fact, a bulldog?”</p><p>Eggsy shrugs. “Nothing. He was my pup already. Wasn’t going to love him any less just because he was lame or some shit. Not his fault he can’t do nothing.”</p><p>Harry finds himself feeling impossibly tender towards both JB and Eggsy. A ridiculous notion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your Tender Heart

**Author's Note:**

> i just can't get over how tender-hearted eggsy is when it comes to animals. i feel like harry can't get over it either.

When Harry looks at JB, he generally has one of three thoughts:

  1. _You ridiculous beast, you almost cost Eggsy his entire future_.
  2. _You ridiculous beast, you are proof of Eggsy’s kind and generous soul_.
  3. _You ridiculous beast, you must go on a diet, my word_.



He has other thoughts about JB, of course, but those are by far the most prevalent (followed closely by annoyance due to JB’s raucous snoring, affection due to JB’s entertaining personality, and jealousy due to JB’s pedestal in Eggsy’s heart).

“You never told me why you chose a pug, Eggsy,” Harry says one day while they’re wasting time in Eggsy’s office until Merlin finishes putting together the dossier for Eggsy's next mission.

Eggsy frowns, and his cheeks twinge the slightest shade of pink. “I thought he was a bulldog,” he mumbles.

Harry isn’t sure he heard right. “Excuse me?” he asks politely.

Eggsy’s definitely blushing now. “I thought he’d get bigger, didn’t I? Didn’t know he was no pug at the time. They were all small.”

“Even if he was a bulldog, why on _earth_ would you still pick him?”

Eggsy scoffs, affronted. “Says the man who picked fucking _Toto_!”

“Cairn terriers are fearless, and they’re wonderfully smart.”

“Yeah, well no one fucks with bulldogs. They’re right fierce. They’ll tear your hand clean off.”

Harry thinks of Merlin’s old bulldog, Balfour. That dog had done nothing besides sleep and eat, and while Merlin had been utterly charmed, and Harry more fond than he’d ever let on, there was no getting around the fact that _fierce_ was not a word anyone would come to associate with the animal. _Useless_ came to mind more readily. As did _messy_ and _flatulent_.

“So what happened when you found out JB was not, in fact, a bulldog?”

Eggsy shrugs. “Nothing. He was my pup already. Wasn’t going to love him any less just because he was lame or some shit. Not his fault he can’t do nothing.”

Harry finds himself feeling impossibly tender towards both JB and Eggsy. A ridiculous notion. The thing is, Kingsman doesn’t give recruits the dogs because it wants them to love them. The dogs are there to show responsibility and focus. Certainly that they provide moral support to their owners is helpful, but they’re underlying purpose is to prove that, during that final test, the recruits’ loyalty to the organization is unwavering and their willingness to listen to orders unbreakable. That Eggsy had loved JB had been unplanned, and in Kingsman’s eyes, unfortunate.

“I still can’t believe you didn't shoot him,” he says, only a little exasperated.

Eggsy scoffs. “I can't believe Kingsman thinks it’s okay to treat another living creature like some kind of expendable tool just to prove some bullshit point about loyalty that certain death by train already made loud clear.”

“It’s not just about loyalty, Eggsy. It’s also about your ability to take orders. Your follow through. Your ability to trust that Kingsman wouldn’t ask you to do anything so cruel without reason”

“Still fucked up. You know JB would’ve died at that range. You know Arthur was trying to fuck me.”

Harry does know this, and it’s something that still frustrates him. Because if Eggsy had done what had been asked of him, there is no denying JB would have died. The fact that Eggsy didn’t listen, and was actually _right_ to disregard his orders, still to this day--almost a year later--leaves Harry both angry and relieved.

This contradiction is why Harry, purely out of vexation, snaps, “They’re just dogs, Eggsy.”

Eggsy looks vaguely horrified. “One of these days, I’m going to sit you down and make you watch _John Wick_.”

“I don’t think so,” Harry replies. “Not if it’s anything like that last movie you forced me to watch.”

“ _Shoot ‘Em Up_ is a cinematic masterpiece.”

“Oh, too right. Rather on par with _The 400 Blows_ without a doubt.”

Eggsy flips Harry the bird. “Never said I don’t like that movie neither.”

Harry is only mildly surprised. He briefly closes his eyes before conceding. “When you return from Barcelona on Thursday I’d be quite happy to watch the film with you.”

Eggsy’s smile is blinding. “Good man, Harry.”

 

\--

 

Eggsy comes back from Barcelona with a torso blossoming in bruises from the almost-full magazine he’d taken to the chest, and a gash down his arm that even Harry has a hard time looking at. He finishes his debrief with Eggsy and then lets the mask of professionalism fall to the ground, until he’s Arthur no more, and just Harry.

“Eggsy, you look rather awful. Perhaps we should reschedule our movie plans.”

Eggsy waves his uninjured hand. “No, come on. I’ve been looking forward to this all week, bruv.”

Harry sighs. “Very well. I’ll have a cab ready for you outside.”

“Thank you, Harry.”

Harry only nods and tries not to wince in sympathy as he watches Eggsy hobble out of his office and down the hall. He isn’t able to leave headquarters, himself, for another hour, though he works as quickly as he’s reasonably able. Part of him thinks he should have made Eggsy wait until he was finished so he could assist him out of HQ and into Harry’s home, but the bigger part of him realizes that Eggsy would have rejected his offer and felt his ego slightly bruised too boot. His legs work just fine after all, even if every step is bound to hurt. And true to form, when Harry finally arrives and steps into his sitting room, Eggsy is already there bundled up in the spare pair of sweats he stores in the guest room, JB snuffling comfortably in his lap.

Instead of a welcome, Eggsy’s first words to Harry are, “Hey, I don’t see any treats around here. You starving my pup when I’m off saving the world?”

“I feed him just the right amount,” Harry says in his defense. Then he takes a seat on the couch besides Eggsy, offering JB a scratch just behind his ears. “Treats are not a necessary part of his meal regime. Do you want him to get fat?”

Eggsy looks terribly offended. “I want him to be happy!”

Harry can’t keep the little smile off his face when he looks at JB sleeping peacefully in Eggsy’s lap. “He looks plenty to happy to me.”

“I suppose,” Eggsy admits. “And I shouldn’t act ungrateful. I appreciate you taking care of him when I’m away.”

“It’s my pleasure, Eggsy.”

“Yeah, well, you have to say that to be polite. I know he ain’t your favorite. I just don’t want to put too much on my mum, you know?”

Harry does know. He’s heard Eggsy say as much since Harry agreed to dog-sit JB on Eggsy’s missions months ago. “A toddler is certainly a handful enough.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Eggsy agrees. Then, “So when are you going to order our take out?”

Harry digs his phone out of his jacket pocket, and then carefully shrugs out of the jacket, laying it flat on the back of the couch. “Well, what are we feeling tonight?”

Eggsy thinks a minute. “Carbs.”

“That’s a food group, not a type of takeaway.”

“Right, well, pick the kind of takeaway that gets me the most carbs. I’m fucking starved over here.”

“Pizza it is.”

“With lots of meat, yeah? And sausage. JB likes sausage.”

“We’re not ordering for JB.”

“You’ve got a vendetta against my dog.”

“I’m trying to keep him alive for as long as possible. I thought that was very much the point?”

“Fine, fine,” Eggsy says. “I know you’re right.”

“A momentous occasion, to hear you admit that out loud.”

“I’d punch you if I wasn’t terrified of moving.”

For a moment, Harry had forgotten. In his sweats, Eggsy’s wounds are hidden, their banter disguising the fact that Eggsy’s in tremendous pain. “You should have a bath later. And have you taken your pain meds?”

Eggsy starts to shrug, and then catches himself. “I took half.”

He would chide him, but Harry knows about Eggsy’s past issues with drug abuse. It’s made him wary, which Harry understands. “Then a bath is most definitely in order later.”

“You going to help me get into it?” Eggsy says with a lascivious wink.

Harry lifts one of Eggsy’s hands to his lips and presses kisses gently to the knuckles. “Of course I am.”

Eggsy’s grin softens to something far more tender than lusty. “You old sap,” he says fondly. “Now, are you going to order us some food or not?”

Harry does as he’s told, but he keeps Eggsy’s hand in his the whole time.

 

\--

 

He’s loath to admit it, but Harry enjoys the movie.

“John Wick’s a total badass,” Eggsy says as he picks off a sausage crumble and feeds it to JB while Harry pretends not to notice.

“A skilled assassin who loves fast cars and has a soft spot for dogs? I can’t imagine why you’d take to him so well.”

Eggsy rests his head on Harry’s shoulder. “You saying I’m like Baba Yaga himself?”

Harry can’t resist. “Who was, traditionally, a woman.”

“No shit?”

“No shit.”

Eggsy consider this. “Then she was a badass, too.”

They watch as John Wick breaks into some kind shelter veterinary facility to staple himself up. (“Good tip for us, too,” Eggsy says absentmindedly, and Harry can’t really argue.) He liberates a pit bull and makes his bloody way out into the night, and Eggsy holds so tight on to Harry’s hand the pressure borders on uncomfortable.

“I didn’t realize you’d be so emotional,” Harry says, nodding down to their entwined fingers.

“Shut it,” Eggsy says without any heat. “Just reminds me of my JB is all.” He snuggles the pug in question closer to him with his free arm.

“I would have never guessed you’d have such a soft spot for animals.”

“Yeah, well, giving a shit about them’s kind of changed my life, you know?”

Harry cocks his head. “You mean when you refused to shoot JB?”

“Not just that,” Eggsy replies, a little cagey.

“Then no, I don’t.”

Eggsy sighs. “Well. That first time I got arrested and you had to bail me out.”

“I remember the day.”

“Okay, so it’s not like the cops actually managed to outrun me in that car chase. I sort of…” Eggsy pauses, and his cheeks go pink in that way Harry’s come to realize means he’s about to say something Eggsy finds embarrassing. “I mean, I crashed into a parked car.”

Harry feels like he knows where this might be going. “And _why_ did you crash into a parked car?”

Eggsy fidgets as much as his beaten body will let him. “There was this fox, see.”

“A fox?”

“In the middle of the road.”

Harry closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. “And you couldn’t bear to hit it.”

Eggsy is immediately and endearingly defensive. “What’d the fox ever do to me?”

“Nothing, I suppose,” Harry says, taking a hand to bring Eggsy’s head closer to him. He presses a kiss to Eggsy’s temple, and can’t even bring himself to feel properly exasperated. Mostly he just feels ridiculously in love. “You’re just a gentle soul.”

Eggsy snorts. “I kill people for a living.”

“You protect people.”

“At the very least I’m trying to protect JB.”

Harry takes the opportunity to intercept Eggsy’s attempt to feed JB yet another piece of sausage. “Then stop indulging him. He won’t live very long if you don’t keep him fit.”

On screen, the credits continue to roll. Harry shuts the movie off and watches Eggsy kiss JB’s head repeatedly. “Maybe Harry’s right,” he says to the dog. “Maybe I spoil you too much.” Eggsy looks at Harry. “You want to run me that bath now?”

“I’d love to,” Harry says, standing from the couch.

“You going to join me?” Eggsy asks.

“If you’d like. But I have one rule.”  Eggsy looks at him, waiting. “JB can’t join, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr to talk to me about hartwin! i have no hartwin friends :( slashmyheartandhopetoporn.tumblr.com


End file.
